The Bronx

The city’s northernmost and only mainland borough, The Bronx has a reputation of being tough and crime-ridden. In fact, it’s not much different from the other outer boroughs, though geographically it has more in common with Westchester County to the north than it does with the island regions of New York City: steep hills, deep valleys and rocky outcroppings to the west, and marshy flatlands along Long Island Sound to the east. Settled in the seventeenth century by the Swede Jonas Bronk, it became part of New York proper around the end of the nineteenth century. Its main thoroughfare, Grand Concourse, was lined with luxurious Art Deco apartment houses; many, though greatly run-down, still stand. Just off the Grand Concourse, Yankee Stadium, at 161st Street and River Avenue (t 718 293 4300, w newyork.yankees.mlb.com), is home to the most successful team in professional sports, 27-time World Series champs the New York Yankees.

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The Bronx Zoo

The largest urban zoo in the USA, the Bronx Zoo is better than most; it was one of the first institutions of its kind to realize that animals both looked and felt better out in the open. The “Wild Asia” exhibit is an almost-forty-acre wilderness through which tigers, elephants and deer roam relatively free, visible from a monorail (May–Oct; $4). Look in also on the colobus monkeys and baboons in the “Congo Gorilla Forest”; “Himalayan Highlands”, with endangered species such as the red panda and snow leopard; and “Tiger Mountain”, which allows visitors the opportunity to get up close and personal with Siberian tigers.